Familiarity Heuristic - Current Criticisms

Current Criticisms

There is some criticism of the concept of familiarity heuristic. It mainly focuses on the point that past behavior does influence present behavior but that this is based on a different cognitive model than the familiarity heuristic. One study examining multiple possible mechanisms of how previous behavior influences present behavior found little support for the familiarity heuristic. The study showed that the influence of past behavior on a present one decreased when subjects were distracted. However, in order for a heuristic to be valid, its effect should be more prevalent when individuals are distracted and their cognitive capacity is highly strained. This result indicates that it is unlikely that a familiarity heuristic was applied during the experiment.

Another limit of familiarity heuristic according to a study by Quellette and Wood is that it might not always be applicable. This study showed that the familiarity heuristic might only occur in situations where the target behavior is habitual and occurs in a stable context within the situation. Thus, the familiarity heuristic could be limited to habits and behaviors in routine situations.